Crazy Rich Asians

Nicholas Young slumped into the nearest seat in the hotel lobby, drained from the sixteen-hour flight from Singapore, the train ride from Heathrow Airport, and trudging through the rain-soaked streets.

Everything is completely and utterly superficial and it is delicious. Sometimes you just need such a story, or at least, I do.

Yes, there are a few stories about love, loss and family in this novel, but they are covered by details about clothing, apartments, furniture, buildings, ways of travel (so many private yet), surroundings and people. And the clothes they wear. It’s like a fancy advertisement guide where all the pictures are replaced by descriptions. The huge family tree on the first pages of the book isn’t really necessary, the characters are all show models anyway.

Kwan still manages to keep up a great speed and enough soap-dramatic turns to keep the reader busy and eager. As one of the blurbs on the cover already put it “Dallas in extrema”. If you want that AND crazy detailed descriptions about rooms plastered with gold, this is your book.